Sliding vehicle-door.



W. W. ELLIS. SLIDING VEHICLE DOOR.

12311101111011 FILED APB.11,1911.

Patented Mar. 11, 1913.

2 SHEETBSHEET 1.

glwuMoz W. W. ELLIS.

SLIDING VEHICLE DOOR.

APPLICATION IILBD APB..11,1911.

1,055,969. Patented Mar.1l,1913.

-2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

1 Wzzur W mS v 1M gm UNITED STATES PATENT WILBUR. w. ELLIS, orWASHINGTON coon-r HOUSE, onio. H

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Specification of Letters Patent. Applicatlonfiled April 11, 1911. SerialNo. 620,877.

the same will swing outwardly from the carare opened.- By proriage whenthe doors viding doors of this character, when the doors are moved toopen positionin. wet weather, the inner sides of the doors .tend tobecome damp and wet and when it is desired to close the door from theinside of the carriage, the operator must lean far out over the step ofthe carriage to grasp the door and move the same to closed position. Ininclement weather this manner of closing the carriage door isparticularly discomforting to the operator or passenger, for in the actof closing the door thepassenge'r is subjected to the inclemencies ofthe weather. Furthermore when the doors aremounted on carriagesas-mentiorred, they tend to engage the rear wheels of the carriage whenin open position,-thus scraping the varnish or lacquer therefrom andgreatly destroying the outer finished surface of the door.

In my invention I aim to provide a device which is mounted to slide onthe carriage so that by simply grasping a handle either inside oroutside of the carriage, the closure can be slid relatively to the frameof the carriage and in this manner moved to either open or closedposition. With a device of this kind it will be readily seen thatthemside of the closure is not subjected to any inclement weather andthe said closure can be operated by anyone either on the inside or theoutside of the carriage or vehicle.

To accomplish the desired result, use is made of, a runner secured tothe frame of the vehicle exteriorly thereof and a plurality ofrelatively similar runneis secured to the frame of the vehicleintoriorly thereof, a closure mounted to slide on'the said runners andmovable longitudinally to the frame of the carriage, the said closurehaving a waternow in use,

proof construction and shaped to aline with the outer sides of thecarriage when the closure is in closed position.

Reference is to be had to the'accompany- .ing drawings constituting apart of this specification, in which similar characters of referencedenote corresponding partsiin all the views, and in which-- Figure 1 isa partial side elevation of a carriage showing my closure appliedthere-- to and in closed'position, parts being broken away to d sclosethe underlying structure. Flg. 2 is a similar side elevation showingmy device in open position. Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken onthe line+3 .3 in Fig. 1 Fig. 4 is a vertical section taken on the line1-4 in Fig. 2. Fig. '5. is a horizontal section taken on the. line .5--5in Fig. 2. Fig. '6 is a fragmentary vertical section taken on the line66 in Fig. 2 showing one of th slidable members of my door.

' Referring more particularly tothe various views a carriage 10 isprovided having a runner 11 secured toithe frame 12 of the carriage atthe upper. end thereof and exteriorly to the frame'12', the said runnerhavingits ends connected to the frame of the carriage and the portionintermediate the ends spaced therefrom and extending longitudin'ally tothe frame. Secured to the mner sides of the frame 12 are a plurality ofsimilar runners 13, one of the runners being "secured to the frame atthe upper end there of and overthe door opening in the frame and theother runner 13 being securedat the lower end of the frame adjacent thelower Patente Mar. 11,1913.

end of the dooropening thereof. The runners 13 have their ends connectedto the frame in any suitable manner, one of the ends of each of therunners being substantially straight and'the other end of each of therunners being preferably curved for a purpose that will be hereinaftermore fully disclosed. Secured to the inner side of a closure 14 are aplurality of similar hangers 15, each of the hangers being provided withelongated apertures 16, through which are extended the runners 13, oneof the hangers 15 slidably engaging the upper runner 13 and the otherhanger 15 slidably engaging the lower runner 13.

Pivotally mounted on the-closure 1 1 at the upper-rear end thereof is ahanger 17 having an aperture therein through which is extended therunner 11 so that the said hanger can be slidably operated over the saidbe'seen in Figs. 1 and 2. AspringjI-Q s secured to the closure 14- and--engagesthe upper: end of the hanger '17.

Assuming-that -the" closure or door 14 is in closed position, when; itis desired to open the same," th'eusual handle' of the closurereleas'ably locking the closure to the carriage frame, is actuated tounlock the closure relativelyfto the frame thus moving one end of theclosure outwardly from the frame by the action of the spring 19 inengagement with the hanger 17 The handle 20 is then grasped and theclosure ltcan be moved to open position by sliding the same on therunners 11 and13." To move the closure to closed position, the handle 20is grasped and the closure is slid on the runners 11 and I 13 toreassume its normal or olosedposition,

the handle 20 being then turned to lock the closure relatively to theframe oft-he carriage. It will be noted that the outward swingingmovement of the closure or door is very slight, as shown in Figs. 3 and4, and

by providing the elongated apertures 16, the

door can be swung outwardly, as mentioned, wlthout causing any indingbetween the hangers 15 and runners 13, it being further into openposition.

noted that the hangers 15 move into engagement with the bend. in therunners 13 when the closure or door has been partially slid the innersideof the door will be at all,

times 'protectedand'the" doorcannot be engaged' by the rear wheels ofthe car'z riage to mar the outer finished surface of the door.

4 It will be understood that a suitable handle can be secured to thedoor 'or closure on the inner side thereof so that the same can be movedto closed or open position by the person or passenger seated inside thecarria e. 7

Although for the purpose of describing my slidable closure I have showna particular construction thereof it will be understood that variousdeparturesq in the described Construction can be made without departingfrom the spirit of the invention and the scope of the invention isdefined in the appended" claims. a

Having thus fully described the invention, what I claim as new, is

1. A device of the class described comprising a vehicle frame, a runnersecured to the said frame exteriorly thereof, a door, a

hanger pivotally mounted on the said door and operable on the saidrunner, a spring engaging the said hanger, a plurality of curved runnerssecured to the said frame interiorly thereof and a plurality of hangerssecured to the said door and slidably engagin the said curved runners,saidhangers being spaced apart with one of the hangers engaging each ofthe said curved runners. e

2. A device of the class described comprising a plurality of curvedrunners secured to the inner side of a vehicle frame, a door, aplurality of apertured hangers secured to the said door, the aperturesin the said hangers being adapted to receive therethrough the saidrunners, an exteriorly disposed .runner secured to the outer side of thesame. frame, a hanger pivotally mounted on the said door and slidablyengaging the said runner, and a spring secured to the said door andengaging the said pivotally mounted hanger.

3. In a device of the class described the combination of a carriage top,a plurality of runners secured to the inner side of the said carriagetop, one of the said runners being disposed at the upper end of the saidtop and the other runner being disposed at the lower end of the saidtop, each of the said runners having one of their ends bent to form anoffset portion, the said carriage top having an entrance therein, adoorfor closing, the entrance to the said carriage top, a plurality ofhangers rigidly secured to the said door on the inner side thereof andslidably engaging the said runners, a runner secured to the outer sideof the said carriage top, a hanger pivotally mounted on thesaid door andslidably engaging the exteriorly disposed runner, a sprlng forengagement with the said pivotally mounted hanger, and a handle on thesaid door for operating the said door to slide on the said runners.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WILBUR w. ELLIs.

[Witnessesz WM. H. BLAIR, JOHN A. SMITH.

